Media » Interviews » The Metal Observer
Many hails to you, my Doom Metal brethren! First off, could you introduce yourself, explain your role in the band, and most of all, tell us: how the hell are you doing today?
Hail to you and to your great webzine! We are Sorrows Path, Stavros Giannakos-Bass, Angelos Ioannidis-Vocals, Fotis Mountouris-Drums and Kostas Salomidis-Guitar and we all feel great today. It’s nice to talk to you!
Let's talk about your release, "Resurrection". Even though it was released in 2006, most of the material was actually recorded in 1995. Why the wait?
This material is our demo tape from 1995 and our promo tape from 1996! On ‘Resurrection’ we just remastered these demos in order to show the people who Sorrows Path were before the problems that forced them to stop their action for seven years! And of course the main problem was the incapability of Kostas to play the guitar for 5 years because of his neck problem! Fortunately, now he has regained some of his power, and he’s feeling much better as the time passes .On the other hand, after the release of our demo tape in 1995 the band’s founder Takis Drakopoulos died, so we were convinced that there were many serious reasons to release these past recordings!
"Resurrection" seems to be a very fitting title for the album, signifying a rebirth of the band. What made you guys decide to get back into the business?
Our love and affection for doom metal music and philosophy! When we managed to partly overcome Kostas’ health problem there was nothing left to stop us from what we were destined to do, that is to say to play doom metal and to express our doom philosophy.
Since the songs were recorded so long ago, was it tempting to go back and re-record them? How do they sound to your ears, in retrospect?
You see, we didn’t want to connect our past days with today. We know that it’s been 10 years since these songs were recorded, but we just wanted to show that this band existed and through all these serious problems created some doom metal music... now we make a new start and of course we don’t forget our past but we don’t want to live with it!
Listening to "Resurrection", one quickly gets the feeling of the Old Masters of Doom - CANDLEMASS, SOLITUDE AETURNUS, and the like. What other influences led to the writing of the album?
Back in 1993 when Sorrows Path were formed, their mentors were their 3 favourite doom metal bands: Memento Mori, Solitude Aeturnus and Candlemass. These were their main inspirations. Of course a musician can be inspired by any other kind of music, even if it’s not something similar to doom metal or even to heavy metal in general!
And how about now? What are you guys spinning in your CD players/playing on your iPods these days? What are your thoughts on the Epic Doom of today, what with bands such as ISOLE and DOOMSHINE releasing such quality albums?
All the members of Sorrows Path listen to doom and heavy metal bands in general a lot, but we also listen to many other kinds of music like ethnic, progressive rock, jazz e.t.c... Now the years have passed and of course we don’t forget our mentors but on the other side we ought to be mature and offer the audience something new, a ‘Sorrows Path’ styled doom metal, that is our dream! Today’s Epic doom metal, in our opinion has some great bands like Isole that you’ve just mentioned or the Italians All Souls Day and Thunderstorm, but we believe that no one can approach the great releases of the 3 epic doom metal bands that were our first influences, the first 2 albums of Memento, the first 3 albums of Solitude and the first 4 albums of Candlemass. Some releases that can catch this whole feeling, without being original doom metal albums though, are the first 2 albums of Saviour Machine and of course Leif with his Krux album.
Speaking of influences, outside of music, what exactly is it that inspires you to play Doom? Doom Metal is one of the most emotionally intense Metal genres, and all of that emotion has to come up from somewhere.
Doom metal is philosophy! We have always been an intellectual band and we have always referred to the extreme human psychological situations, to the salvation of man through his contact with pain and sympathy. There was some kind of magic in the fact that the 2 founders of Sorrows Path had this terrible fate with their health problems, the one died, the other was almost completely paralyzed for some period! But this entire metaphysical situation was our main inspiration, showing that we were destined to continue speaking about all these things.
What do you guys do when you're not writing quality Doom Metal tunes? Doom isn't exactly something anyone can make a living off of, so I imagine that you all have day jobs, hobbies, etc.
Thank you very much for believing that we write qualitative Doom Metal music! O.K. we all have our jobs, some other hobbies, things and people we love, but we can also make it fine without any money, this plague that can shatter the whole human spirit and personality!
Let's turn things around a bit. We've talked about the things you like, the things that inspire you. What out there makes you cringe? Are there any bands/sounds that you would just like to have banned from the Earth?
There are some bands that are very far from our musical tastes, some other that violate our musical feeling and “rape” the art of music in general, but we don’t have some kind of aggression against people! We all are mortal and we have to forgive other human beings, feel sorry for them and try to help them in their every step. You see, the two most brilliant religions that we appreciate a lot- Christianity and Buddhism- believe that we all are one body and any kind of vanity can destroy the person that produces it and of course humankind in general!
I've noticed that you guys are very active on Myspace, as are a lot of bands in this day and age. But you're in an interesting situation - when the band first got together, Myspace wasn't even an option. How is today different from back then? Would you say that the internet has significantly helped you guys out, and how so?
Very much! The internet helped us approach people that really admired us and whom we would never had the opportunity to know under other conditions! On the other hand we should never loose the real meaning of music or consume ourselves in a fool game of fame and meaningless communication. Just see the loneliness and paranoia of our times to understand this truth!
How is the local Metal scene in Athens, your home town? How do you get on with fellow Athens Doomsters (and one of my favorite underground Doom bands) MYSTIC MOON?
There are many metal bands here in Athens and the things have changed for the Greek doom metal scene. You see, we were the only band that played this kind of music, 10 years ago! We don’t know Mystic Moon personally, but we keep in touch through the Internet, so we hope to meet them someday! There are some really hopeful Greek Doom Metal bands but we don’t think it would be fair to refer to names in public for our Greek friends!
Let's talk about the vision of the band for a few minutes. What are you guys trying to accomplish with SORROWS PATH?
We explore how man can save his mortal existence knowing sympathy and pain and beating his vanity and his desires! We talk about the liberation of man from the chains of dogmas and meanings so that he can find the animal and child hidden inside himself. We also express sarcasm and contempt towards vanity, fame, money, power and all kind of addictions. In a few words, we refer to things that can restore the broken harmonies anywhere they can be found! That is our one and only true vision!
Tell me about the band's lyrics. What themes do you think are the most prevalent, and is there anything that you are trying to communicate to the listeners?
The lyrics of Sorrows Path in general are dedicated to the extreme human psychological situations, they are dedicated to the weak and the different ( tortured women and children, sick in mind or body, prisoners, old men, whores, ideologists, philosophers, victims of racism and sexism, etc).We try to make the listeners understand the human pain, and feel sympathy for all human creatures. That is the first step to the true “resurrection”. Of course, we can understand that many people have already destroyed personalities but we also believe that we can all find some way to reach the heart of any person on this mistreated earth if we really take the time to do so!
Let's say that you could set up a dream tour with any bands from any time period, and play at any venue you'd like. Where would it be and who would you play with?
Whenever there would be people with open minds and hearts! On the other hand, we fulfilled a dream that we really had when we played at Underworld Club in Athens with Solitude Aeturnus, our mentors when we were young men! This live performance was our first after 9 years, it was a really impressing moment, that we will never forget!
So what's next for SORROWS PATH? More recording? Touring?
We have almost closed some serious lives for next autumn! We are also open to any serious suggestion for a live performance, whenever it may take place! Besides, we continuously work to give flesh to our main purpose. That is the recording and release of our new album in 2007! It will certainly contain 12 heavy new songs!
Let's play a bit of word association. I give you a word; you tell me the first thing that comes to mind.
- Heavy:
- Doom:
- Politics:
- Butter:
- Religion:
- Television:
- Life:
- Death:
- Korn:
- Sorrow:
- Heavy: Metal
- Doom: Eternity
- Politics: people
- Butter: food
- Religion: difficult
- Television: fake
- Life: sexuality
- Death: philoshophy
- Korn: band
- Sorrow: path
I thank you much for taking the time for this interview. Is there anything you'd like to leave us with?
Thank you very much friend! Good luck to your future plans! There is only one true message: Doom rules eternally...
